To think I was once a girl who started a bookclub? Sigh.

On my reading wishlist are currently Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, Arrack in the Afternoon by Mathew Menacherry, Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar, Dork by Sidin Vadukut and Vinegar Sunday also by Kankana Basu. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them.

6 We move through negative spaces and dwell in positive spaces.

Positive spaces are almost always preferred by people for lingering and social interaction.
Negative spaces tend to promote movement rather than dwelling in place.

18 Any design decision should be justified in at least two ways. The more justifications you can find for any element, the better.

E.g.
Stairs to promote passage from floor to floor, a space of congregation, a scuptural element.
A window that bathes a wall with light, frames a view, allows ventilation.
Row of columns that provides structural support, allows people to meet and sit.

32
The most effective, most creative problem solvers engage in a process of meta-thinking, or ‘thinking about the thinking’.

Meta-thinking means that you are aware of how you are thinking as you are doing the thinking. Meta-thinkers engage in continual internal dialogue of testing, stretching, criticising and redirecting their thought processes.

51 Beauty is due more to harmonious relationships among the elements of a composition than to the elements themselves.

It’s the dialogue of the pieces, not the pieces themselves, that creates aesthetic success.

72 Design with models.

3D models can help you understand your project in new ways. Quick material models will help you test design options. Carefully crafted, highly detailed models are more suited to document design decisions that have already been made.

100 Give it a name.

When you come up with a concept or stray idea, name it – ‘half-eaten donut’, ‘meeting of strangers’ and other such monikers will help you explain to yourself what you have created. As the process evolves, allow new names to emerge.

101 Architects are late bloomers.

An architect must be knowledgeable in history, art, sociology, physics, psychology, materiality, symbology, political process, and innumerable other fields and must create a building that meets regulatory codes, keeps out the weather, withstands earthquakes, has functioning elevators and mechanical systems, and meets the complex functional and emotional needs of its users. Learning to integrate so many concerns into a cohesive product takes a long time, with lots of trial and error along the way.

There were maybe just over a dozen of us, we started off at the State Library and walked around the CBD learning about changes the city has grown through from indigenous times, the history of immigrants and food, about the various tea rooms, markets and “coffee palaces”, we stopped at the key historical venues such as Quists coffee, Chinatown square, Victoria Hotel, Pellegrinis ending up at Von Haus, a beautiful bar and restaurant that I must visit again soon.

I’m reading the book right now. Flavours of Melbourne is a culinary biography and fans of food writing, and I guess I am one (I read a book called ‘A Year of Slow Food’ before this), will find it an interesting historical insight into the gastronomy of Melbourne, a more detailed look at the sort of information I learned on the tour, plus the drinking and confectionary habits of Melburnians, about pioneers and restaurateurs that paved the way, how business was done and changed, and also contains original and adapted recipes from every era and many recommendations of great eateries and bars. I’m finding it most intriguing.

I went through most of my life without Japanese food. Except for ramen. Gross ramen from gross plastic packets with gross shrivelled vegetable bits. Then at some fancy store opening five years ago, I tried some tiny teriyaki chicken sushi and I couldn’t believe my tastebuds. Since then I’ve been much more adventurous, and have had yakitori, udon, bento boxes, you name it. My mum sometimes spoiled me with teppanyaki lunches. I friggin love sashimi, tempura anything and katsu curry.

Anywho I never prepared anything Japanese till recently. Now I’m not the best cook unless it involves an oven. I try but my stove skills are mediocre at best. My friends cruelly laugh that I can’t teach anyone to cook but I can teach people to make friends who know how to. So imagine my joy when I found The Manga Cookbook. Manga + recipes in the form of step-by-step instructions = WIN.

Here are the recipes for tonkatsu and rice burgers.

Tonkatsu

Panko (fine breadcrumbs)
2 pork tenderloin slices
1 egg mixed with two tbsp water
Flour
Oil for frying 

Cut any gristle off the pork and season to taste.
Put the flour in one bowl, egg in the second, panko in the third and coat the pork in this assembly order.
Heat the oil on medium and add the pork. Fry each side for about three minutes.
Once the cutlet is golden-brown, rest it on a paper towel and drain off excess oil. Serve warm.

Rice Burgers

Like the bread on a sandwich, rice patties can hold just about anything in between. Fillings can be beef patties, tonkatsu, fish, fried chicken, avocado, cheese, sausage, cucumber or whatever takes your fancy. Use mayo, wasabi, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce or another other condiment you like.

Place a quarter cup of cooked rice into a plastic bag and mould it into the shape and size of a hamburger bun half.
Add a teeny amount of butter/oil to a frying pan and set over medium heat. Tilt the pan until it melts and coats the bottom.
Add the rice buns to the pan and cook until firm but not toasted.
Place anything you want between the rice buns. 

What’s Japanese for voila?!

P.S. They’re a bit cooler in the book.

Sure there was wine and sausage buns, posing and lolling and stick house building but more importantly, there really were books and talk about literature and philosophy, fiction and non, what we’re currently reading and what the writers among us enjoy writing, opinions about books, all time favourites, likes, loathes and recommendations.

If you’re in Melbourne and you’d like to join our bookclub, send an note to sheena@thisisweeny.com and I’ll let you know where and when our next meeting is. 

And remember the three magic words. Reading is sexy.

At the moment, each time I jump on a tram, I read and relish this – The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel. It combines two of the great things in life – travel and experiments and is set out in a intriguing format, providing unconventional travel ideas and project guidelines through mock hypotheses and lab results. It’s a collection of both ideas and stories.

I’m less than halfway through but I am liking it very much. I even jumped on the free tourist tram that circles the city so I could read for a bit longer. The book is for dreamers and scientists and anthropologists and party people. It’s for traveller souls. I’m going to add it permanently to my bookshelf.